• Carolina Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford knows when the gettin' is good. With his team on the verge of yet another playoff DNQ, Rutherford is rumored to be stepping down at season's end after 20 years on the job. It looks as though his successor will come from within the organization and more change may be on the way.

• Luke DeCock writes that, even though his teams have missed the playoffs in seven of the past eight years, Rutherford deserves credit for his past successes rather than blame for recent struggles. Not to dismiss DeCock's sentiments out of hand, but Rutherford needs to be held accountable for his team's long-term failures. Past glories only get you so far. It's time for a new hand on the wheel.

• The KHL team SKA St. Petersburg is looking to cut its financial reliance on oil giant Gazprom. Considering the economics of Russian hockey, this is a bit of a head scratcher, and raises questions about how it will operate in the future ... and how it will pay for off-the-books contracts like the one given last summer to Ilya Kovalchuk.